By Pency Tsai • Source: Yifeng 2016 Summer Issue
Translation and Interpretation – the two are obviously intertwined but how does each benefit its practitioners? Which one should one concentrate on?
Let me introduce you to a little bird…let’s call her Pansy (no relation to me, I swear), a freelance interpreter/translator who’s been doing this full-time now for seven years. Everything’s been very rewarding for this bird; there’s always been something new to learn on the job. That’s how a career should be – one full of challenges and stimulation – and this oblivious bird has been eating it up from day one.
She has been blessed to have interpreted at business conferences, in courtrooms , for refugees and immigrants, mayors and foreign delegates, doctors and lawyers, and even for large groups of pregnant ladies—the toughest and by far the best of the bunch. I won’t go into details about those soon-to-be mothers but the agency told me that the assignments were very hands-on. I soon discovered that they were breastfeeding classes.
Pansy has also been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work on a broad range of subjects spanning many different industries during her life as a translator. The research and lessons gathered from those assignments, some disasters and some magnificent pieces of art, made life much easier in her other line of work—that of an Interpreter.
So did translating a business document for a Fortune 500 company help her interpret better for a refugee claimant during a hearing? Absolutely.
Translation allows one to carefully review the source document and to write and rephrase the original source into an accurate and faithful representation in another language. The research and the pursuit of perfection driving one forward as a translator pushes her to continuously seek solutions and methods to better herself when interpreting (i.e. brainstorming with colleagues, self-reflection, classes like note taking, etc.). There’s something about taking the time to formulate an accurate sentence and to recreate the flow and meaning of what’s being said into another language. The whole thought process remains with you and becomes habitual and intuitive if you do it over and over again.
Upon accepting an interpretation assignment, one’s mindset is already prepped to do research and gather the information needed, process the words and ideas, and then formulate everything into another language.
It’s instantaneous…most of the time. In this regard, the translation work that one has done becomes instrumental in improving one’s interpretation skills. I’m sure clients are glad that they don’t have to pay for your skills as a translator. It would be nice if you got paid for them, but wait…you do! That’s where translation comes into play in your repertoire of skills.
What about the opposite case? As a translator, how does interpreting help you when you’re focusing on the work in front of the computer screen? Ask yourselves if these statements hold true:
– When I translate, I’m already thinking about how I would say things if I do interpretation for the same work. I have this mindset.
– How do I approach a translation assignment? The approach is one where using my intuition from interpreting, I write the translation as if it were a consecutive interpretation and then I go back to review it. Oftentimes you will find that your sixth sense is fairly accurate and your initial take on a phrase that is to be translated is fairly good. Granted, you do have to go back and fine-tune things but that’s the beauty of translation.
When you have the luxury of extra time on your hands, it’s always great to be able to double-check and proofread your work. Can you incorporate this into your interpretation assignments?
Many of us are introspective. We are our biggest critics and we do have to uphold our own standards that we set for ourselves. When reviewing events that have just unfolded, sometimes you will come across errors in your work and when it’s possible, acknowledge them and correct them immediately.
Pansy has often stated on the record during immigration hearings, “for the record, earlier the Interpreter said so and so for this term, when in actual fact blah blah blah is the more accurate interpretation and I’d like to replace so and so with blah blah blah.” It’s a force of habit that she developed thanks to translation.
Another habit that has been reinforced has to do with consistency. Recently, Pansy and a colleague were at a company with in-house interpreters and translators. Not professionals,mind you, but people who had language skills that were utilized on the job.
One thing that struck Pansy was an answer that was provided when her colleague asked a simple question regarding consistency. The blank look of “huh” and the response were baffling.
They had never thought of maintaining a system that ensured the consistency of terms used in an article or a recorded segment. After thinking about it, I realize that it actually isn’t the norm that non-professionals would seek to maintain this level of accuracy in their work.
We have been conditioned by our translation work and by the software that we use. As perfectionists, our minds subconsciously seek to maintain this orderly world. It’s why the same strategy, or thought process, is there when we are interpreting. We seek to maintain this consistency.
Pansy is occasionally guilty of what is commonly known as Google Translate syndrome. That is, word-for-word interpretation. Here is an example of what happens when your mind isn’t working properly.
世界最大的体育盛宴即将爆发!
The biggest world sports meeting will be blown up.
That is an example of bad interpretation that could have been avoided if the interpreter had been a regular translator and often dealt with the proper meaning in the right context. It also involves the choice of words between language pairs. This type of misinterpretation could have been avoided even in the heat of the moment.
The point of these examples is to show that preparation is important and the best way to educate oneself and improve one’s knowledge is to write things down and to think thoroughly about their meaning.
What better way to do this than to have done translation on the topic at hand? We are familiar with the vocabulary not just because we have encountered the words before during interpretation, but also because we’ve been asked to provide translation of such terminology in the past.
How about translating? Did you learn to translate first? Who learned to interpret first? How did we come to learn our craft?
Daniel Gile, who wrote the book Basic Concepts and Models for Translator and Interpreter Training, lists professional experience, introspection of one’s own performances, intuition, and one’s own methods that were taught or observed as the foundation for many Interpreters.
I find these statements ring true, especially for Pansy. I see her, Interpreter/Translator version 6.0, as a combination of many different resources. We’re all very much like amoebas, adapting and changing as we assimilate new and different skillsets in our journey through life.
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to facilitate communication between people who otherwise would have no way to make connections with one another. We’re all high achievers. We’re all disciplined and capable individuals with linguistic skills that are coveted by society.
Should one stick with interpreting over translating? If my speaking skills are subpar, should I leave that to others and focus on my translation work? Why limit ourselves by selecting one discipline over the other when the two go hand in hand. Interpreting very much complements translating.
The sharpening of one’s skills in the language pair in question, whether it’s English and Mandarin or French and Spanish, happens when doing interpretation or translation. It is a no-brainer when choosing which field to practice. Practice both.
So the next time someone asks you what you do for a living, straighten your back and hold your head up and proudly state that you are a professional freelance interpreter slash translator, or vice versa.
Leave a Reply